Love the hex tiles on the lander. Now it's like Apollo + Space Shuttle.

The orange markings are really working out well. It does give it a unique character, which as I understand is what was intended.

Can we see a detail of the warning icons at the thrusters?

Here is some thinking out loud on the warning icons. On one hand, I would think that the military retro-fitters who worked on the ship would have frowned or disapproved of the icons, since they point to places worth targeting. On the other hand, I would expect a targeting computer in the future to recognize the thruster emplacements anyway. So, there's a cost-benefit analysis. What's their purpose? Who is being reminded where the thrusters are and why? What accidents are trying to be avoided? Another option might be to go with a subtler approach, and give the thruster emplacements a slightly different color. That could still achieve a warning effect, without the neon sign saying, "place IED here".

Vecktor, this is a magnificent job. I love the way the added details are providing scale and character to the original design. One idea that occurred to me is this... Since the ship has be hastily modified for combat duties, should the modifications have a more bolted on, patchwork, bare metal appearance to indicate aesthetics and matching the original paint scheme were not a priority during the refit?

As for the warning markings, go for it. Some red outlining like you have around the lander wouldn't hurt. As far as I'm concerned only in PC Star Trek do combatants have the luxury of targeting specific systems like engines or weapons. In real combat you are just aiming for center-mass end of story. If an enemy can read the markings you have added so far, they are too close already.

As for the warning markings, go for it. Some red outlining like you have around the lander wouldn't hurt. As far as I'm concerned only in PC Star Trek do combatants have the luxury of targeting specific systems like engines or weapons. In real combat you are just aiming for center-mass end of story. If an enemy can read the markings you have added so far, they are too close already.

Here is some thinking out loud on the warning icons... What's their purpose? Who is being reminded where the thrusters are and why? What accidents are trying to be avoided? Another option might be to go with a subtler approach, and give the thruster emplacements a slightly different color. That could still achieve a warning effect, without the neon sign saying, "place IED here".

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I figure the warning icons are mostly for the benefit of people working outside in EVA suits. The ship would have to be held at station-keeping, meaning the thrusters could be active. You wouldn't want someone wandering in front of one just as it fired.

Sure, you could paint the thrusters themselves bright orange or something, but then you're calling attention to them at least as much as a warning icon would. The way I figure it, an enemy isn't going to waste their time trying to take out maneuvering thrusters anyway. Assuming they have some goal other than to obliterate the ship outright, they would more likely target the main engines, drive spheres, weapons pylons, something like that.

Another thing to consider is that the primary offensive weapons in this universe are missiles, probably with fairly high-yield warheads. Aiming one of those at something as small as a maneuvering thruster would probably be rather pointless because it's going to take out half the rest of the ship anyway.

While we're on the subject of maneuvering thrusters, I do have a slight quandary I need to resolve. It occurs to me that the thrusters just outboard of the cargo bay doors are going to be blocked by those doors when they are in their open positions. That could present problems when the ship is trying to maintain station-keeping during cargo transfer operations. I think I'm going to have to relocate those thrusters, maybe use two instead of one with them positioned on either side of where the open doors would be. That would make more sense anyway because it would take a fair amount of thrust to spin this ship on its axis.

Since the ship has be hastily modified for combat duties, should the modifications have a more bolted on, patchwork, bare metal appearance to indicate aesthetics and matching the original paint scheme were not a priority during the refit?

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Well, the primary modifications were weapons enhancements. The pylons on either side of the forward fuselage were originally intended to mount scientific equipment, scanners, sensor probes, etc. They might have had some smaller beam weapons, maybe even a missile or two, as well as the point-defense turrets. The refit replaced nearly all the scientific instruments with missile racks and swapped out the fixed beam cannons for much larger and more powerful versions. In fact, if you go back through this thread, you'll see WIP images of the 3D model showing how the new cannons were so much larger that they had to cut holes in the backs of the pylons to mount them. Probably they also upgraded the ship's tactical systems, added crew berths, expanded medical facilities, that sort of stuff.

I'm still toying with the idea that they may have also added some armor plating to a few areas like the main engines, weapons pylons, fuel tanks, etc, but at this point that would be a little like welding steel plates to a classic car. Not that aesthetics carry much weight when it comes to battle preparedness, but after putting so much work into the ship's style and appearance, I hate to obscure it behind a bunch of armor plating.

I don't know. We'll see what shakes out after the basic design is complete.

There's a post on my blog showing some ideas for other ships in this setting, not necessarily front-line warships. I've also done some sketches of the main Transhuman Authority (the bad guys) vessel in the film, but I don't know if Dennis wants me showing that one around just yet.

Speaking of the Transhuman Authority, I've been wondering what the story is behind them. By the sound of their government, or faction (?), it sounds like their origin has something to do with the human race, either with the expressed purpose of opposing the human race, the United Worlds, or both, or so those who founded the Transhuman Authority could do their own thing, what ever that happened to be, whether Earth or the United Worlds liked it or not. Or does the story revolve around the legend of 12 other human colonies (if you know about the story of the 13 Crystal Skulls, you'll be familiar with the legend), and the Transhuman Authority was formed before Earth had starflight capabilities, and now Earth and her colonies and allies are caught up in some conflict that started long ago?

Or would that reveal spoilers, and that is something that will be revealed in the movie?

I'm just curious, does the Transhuman Authorities' origin belong with Earth, or are they completely unrelated to the human race?

I'll leave it to Dennis to explain who and what the Transhuman Authority is, if he chooses to do so. I will say that they do not predate known human history or come from some other lost tribe of humanity in the cosmos.

Humanity has not discovered an abundance of “new Earths” orbiting other stars - most worlds upon which human beings can live at all are barely habitable. The emigrants from Earth - not all of them voluntary pioneers - who’ve populated the mining worlds and marginal factory planets have adapted themselves through genetic surgery and technological enhancements to survive in places inimicable to life itself. Now a new cadre of leaders have arisen on these worlds, harnessing ages of resentment and rebellion to form the Transhuman Authority and launch a war of conquest against Earth and its United Worlds allies.

I suspect the windows are going to wind up to be a love 'em or hate 'em type of thing. They don't show very well here because they're on the illuminated side of the ship, and I think they might look better if there were fewer of them. Gonna have to play with these a bit to get them right.

I'd suggest only using them on the fuselage itself - almost all of our living space is there, and it makes a little visual cue that this is where the people are - even though there may be a few folks out in the cargo area as well.

I'm spending my day in LW Modeler, Coreldraw 9, Illustrator etc - and when I flip over to TrekBBS for a moment my hand thinks it should be able to zoom in on Vektor's drawings by spinning the mouse wheel.

Think "Galaxy-class" windows, not Constitution-class" windows. They are taller than they are wide for the people standing on the decks. But , yeah, that threw me off for sec too.

Since this is originally a civvie ship after all, would you consider having a deck that contains an "observation gallery" sorta thing where there's a wide compartment with a whole bunch of windows in a row? That would help with a more obvious cue about the deck orientation...

Thanks for the clarification, Vektor. I remembered the discussion about the over sized weapons. I didn't recall that the pylons were basically original equipment for the science vessel role. I don't blame you for being reluctant to cover your elegant design with armor plating.

I like the scattering of windows but I also like Albertese's idea of a bank of windows to better indicate the deck orientation. Unlike most sci fi ships this one will likely spend most of its screen time flying on its side relative to the deck orientation.